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Drinking Water

When water infrastructure is underfunded, a simple activity like drinking a glass of tap water could be unsafe. There are over 53,000 community drinking water systems and 21,400 not-for-profit non-community water systems in the U.S. Surprisingly, there are several areas of the nation that are still utilizing water infrastructure systems that pre-date the Civil War. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2013 Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment it is estimated that drinking water utilities will need to invest $384 billion through 2030 to continue to provide safe and sufficient water to the American public (Environmental Protection Agency, 2009). That is a serious level of funding needed but if we are to maintain a first-class society, where people can safely drink from our water systems, we must make these investments.